Hint, hint, Mr. John

JG Summit Holdings founder John Gokongwei Jr. was visibly squirming during last Saturday’s college commencement exercises at the Ateneo de Manila University’s high school covered court. Then again, so were the graduates in their togas and their equally uncomfortable parents (many of whom used their commencement programs as fans).

Okay, so Mr. John – he was given an honorary degree and was guest speaker in gratitude for his P200-million donation to the school – was the only one on stage who spoke in English. (Everybody else chose to speak in deep Tagalog that would have done Balagtas proud).

And then, there was the lack of air-conditioning during the humid afternoon.

The joke among the graduates was that Mr. Gokongwei might want to donate some air-conditioning units in the future – in time for his next speech before the Atenean community.

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The relationship between British-American Tobacco Co. and La Suerte Cigar & Cigarette Factory has become even closer.

You see, the two companies which have spearheaded the legal fight against the tax order of Internal Revenue Commissioner Guillermo Parayno Jr. – this is the one that increases the taxes paid by cigarette brands produced after 1997 – have recently inked a manufacturing and distribution agreement. BAT, which owns the Lucky Strike brand, will partially use the facilities of La Suerte, which produces the Memphis and Astro brands.

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Social Security System executive vice-president Horace Templo has been meted a six-month suspension again, effective today.

A much-loved career officer, Mr. Templo has increasingly been given more blatant signals by management led by president and chief executive officer Corazon de la Paz to resign but he refuses to do so because, to his mind and that of many SSS employees, he hasn’t done anything wrong.

Mr. Templo is being questioned for his decisions as former head of the pension fund’s investment group to prop up the country’s dying capital market by buying shares in listed companies such as Equitable PCI Bank during the term of then President Estrada.

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Calls and letters 1: Lang Bank of the Philippines president Margarito Teves considers the partial withdrawal of the multi-billion business of Government Service Insurance System from LandBank to the Development Bank of the Philippines as a "wake-up call".

Fact is, Gary Teves has asked his marketing people how his office – which he considers a "cost center" – can help drum up business.

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Calls and letters 2: Prosperity Inc. chairman Gloria Aguirre writes that her company’s ice-cream brand, El Favorito, has been in the market since 1994 and that the name of the manufacturer and the manufacturer’s address is "clearly printed in the upper hand portion of both the one half-gallon and one liter" labels.

Ms. Aguirre forgets to mention that the printing on the label is so small that it takes more than regular reading glasses to read it – or, for that matter its market share.